The Era of the Quiet Workforce

Quiet Quitting, Quiet Firing, Quiet Down-Sizing, and Quiet Returning

We have heard many or some of these terms used in different contexts, mostly negative, but what are these phenomena, and how do we navigate them in the age of recruiting competition?

Quiet Quitting - This is the most misunderstood term. The employee does not quit doing their job in any way. They instead, only do their job and only during working hours. Quiet quitting developed as push back against the culture that expected people to put in 80 hours, be constantly available, and take on every new opportunity. This trend has surprised many employers, as employees are no longer competing for the proverbial corner office. They want a paycheck that supports the life they want to live. They don’t want that life to be spent at work.

Some workers fall into quiet quitting due to frustration in the lack of promotions or financial gains in a career. If they are not seeing rewards for their increased productivity, they simply do not put forth the extra effort. In reality, these employees are doing nothing wrong; however, this can be frustrating to a GenX manager who is used to employees working extra and competing against colleagues.

Quiet Firing - This is quite the opposite of quiet quitting. Quiet firing is when an employer slowly removes tasks from an employee that are valuable to degrade the quality of the position, in hopes the employee will voluntarily quit. “Milton from Office Space” is a classic example of this phenomenon.

Employees who experience quiet firing are literally being pushed out of the organization, but quietly. This tends to be a passive aggressive behavior for employers who lack conflict and coaching management skills.

Quiet Downsizing - This is a newer trend based on the lack of talent and potential for a recession. We see employers eliminating positions to right-size the organization, but through eliminating positions that are vacant due to not being able to find qualified candidates and turn over. Many companies see this as a responsible and valuable tool to ensure long standing human capital is preserved; while the organization continues to monitor the economy.

This causes less stress than downsizing of current employees, and sometimes can lead to internal growth through skilling up existing employees to fill gaps in service. When done appropriately, quiet downsizing can create a positive work environment where current employees feel valued while “right sizing” an organization.

Quiet Returning - This trend is new and brought on by an older population that finds extreme self-worth through working and a small number of younger workers who have invested wisely. Quiet returning is when an employee stays with or joins an organization (as an employee or volunteer), but chooses to step back from higher paying, higher stress jobs, to more administrative roles. They keep their schedules and sense of purpose without the higher responsibility levels, as they are financially independent of the organization.

Individuals who quiet return are often living off supplemental income such as retirement or investment funds, but find their “retirement” more enjoyable with the structure of a formal job and purpose. This has been life-sustaining for many organizations dealing with high retirement rates and recruiting issues.

What do all these trends tell us about the current working population, and how can we integrate these into actionable workplace hiring and retention initiatives?

We see through all levels of organizations the need for transparent and honest feedback to our employees and managers. Being able to voice concerns and handle conflict productively allows for growth in an organization and can create a culture where quiet quitting and quiet firing are culled or addressed through open conversations about growth, advancement, and expectations. Creating these cultures has a direct correlation with retaining and attracting new talent when everyone is struggling.

Quiet downsizing has grown as a practice across industries. When we see companies eliminating jobs, such as the recent tech industry downsizing efforts, we should ask how many of those positions were filled at the time to better understand the human capital losses.

Lastly, our quiet returners have kept our economy going in many ways. We see people coming back from retirement to sit in our classrooms. I have a volunteer at my front desk currently, and the woman who serves my coffee at McDonalds is retired, but just missed people.

Our quiet workforce necessitates company culture-based recruiting and retention techniques that allow for growth; because our company’s actions will always speak loudly when our workforce becomes quiet.

Will this quiet workforce continue? Feel free to share your thoughts by emailing donnreed@iu.edu to discuss what you think about these trends!